The other day while I was out running I told a dude on an ebike that motorcycles aren’t allowed on the lakefront trail and he looked at me like I was the asshole, but he was the one riding a motorcycle on a bike path. He proceeded to peel out at like 30mph.

I’ve been off the bike for like the past two weeks because of a neck/back re-injury. I decided to ride the hardtail to work yesterday to test the waters after doing a whole bunch of PT. Well, riding down the street and in front of me is someone going much slower than I was, I decided to hit a shortcut I’ve hit dozens of times on my double cross commuter, basically cutting a corner through a bit of gravel, hopping up the curb, across the sidewalk then back down, easy right? Well, I didn’t check my tire pressures since the last time I rode 2 weeks ago and rolled the front tire coming down the curb and laid the whole right side of my body down in the middle of the street. The person I passed just calmly took the turn and rode past me like nothing happened.

So, I know I did a jackass thing and crashed in the middle of the street, but who rides past someone who just crashed in the middle of the street without asking if they’re OK?

So, set myself back a couple weeks with my recovery and have a nicely banged up hip, ankle, shoulder, and a little cut on my head where my helmet cracked. Cat6 training will resume in 2-3 weeks probably.

And I’ve definitely ridden past people who beefed it on the commute. But someone else stopped as I rode by so I’ve convinced myself I am in the clear. Plus the circumstances didn’t make me exactly feel bad for the person.

The nice weather is back in SF and the cat6 races are in full swing. 2 weeks ago I would find 5 or 7 people waiting at certain lights on my commute. This morning there were probably 30. And as if normal bike commuters aren’t annoying enough at least in the winter the year round commuters seem a bit more experienced. These fair weather commuters are such dicks. Literally racing, close passing, wheel sucking assholes.

Super pleasantly cat 6ed rolling through downtown Richmond on Franklin today. Couple dudes with big porter racks + innertube bungies, a woman on a neat looking belt drive bikepacking machine, a few other middle aged people on parts bin Surlys like the one I was riding.

Richmond is definitely a bike city, but it’s also a low-density city. I liked seeing that many people who seem to have a good handle on the whole bike thing all in the space of a couple of minutes.

There’s a short sharp climb near the end of my commute, 300m and 26% average. Saw a couple of roadies about 1/3 the way up as I approached. They were out of the saddle and working hard, I stayed seated and chugged past them about 2/3 the way up. Then proceeded to drop them on the plateau and descent, had a full block on them by the time they turned off. Felt good, particularly cos I’m very unfit and had a full commuting load.

Had my first CAT6 experience in months. A quiet commute away from the main routes and a general paucity of winter riders in MPLS means I almost never see anyone else on a bike. He was a guy on a nice fatbike, and full Minneapolis Winter Biker™ regalia. I’m on the Tarckyon, running 2” slicks, wearing my work clothes.

The poor guy just couldn’t keep up, but the high point was when I cleaned a really rough 10’ section full of snow, ice ridges, and tire ruts at top speed, but heard him clip out trying to d the same on 5” tires.

Ok I had a strange experience yesterday.
I was riding home from work and I could feel/hear somebody riding right on my wheel, like inches away drafting me in traffic.
This is probably my biggest pet peeve. Not only is it dangerous, it’s just plain rude.
After a few blocks of being annoyed, I pulled over into a parking space and let the person pass.
Then being the passive aggressive asshole that I am I sucked up on their wheel thinking “You take a pull, asshole”
Then at the next intersection, the person (who was a woman) turned off.
I lol’d and continued my ride, stopping at the pet food store and pulling onto a street parallel of the one the lady had been drafting me on.
As I was leaving the store, I saw her again, this time riding on the sidewalk. Keep in mind that she was kitted out in roadie shit and riding clipless pedals.
I rode home and she was on the sidewalk the whole way like a half a block ahead of me. It was odd.

I told my wife the story and she said that the lady probably turned off immediately because I had scared her with my passive aggressive/aggressive aggressive quick stop and close follow.
When I pulled over and followed, I assumed that my drafter was a dude because drafting randos is a total dude move.
I’m left feeling kinda like a chauvinist asshole. Am I?